Friday, April 19, 2013

The Dairy List

In the last month, I've had no less than five people tell me that they are trying to drop dairy. All have been mothers, trying to get rid of an allergen in their diets. So, this is the dairy list. The list of all the substitutes I've tried and liked (and a few I really didn't like). My intention awhile back was to review each of these things individually, and at some point I will, but for now, I think it's more important to put the basics out there, to help people.Not all of the products below are soy-free or gluten-free, but all are vegan.Butter

Milk
I’ve found that almond is pretty good and so is soy milk. Rice milk tastes a lot like rice, so it’s not my favorite.
I’ve not tried hemp milk or sunflower “milk,” but those are options, too. In
the meantime, here are some good brands…

It's good to know that chocolate and vanilla versions of
soymilk and almond milk are very yummy and can be heated for hot cocoa or used
in lattes). A lot of the time, you can sub almond milk in things like mashed
potatoes (which is delicious).

Cheese is
tricky. I think it’s the hardest thing to mimic. I used to be quite the cheese
nerd, so I am also really picky about my fake cheese.

My favorite
cheese is WayFare cheese spread, which I love on crackers, in tacos, or on
burgers. It’s close in texture and taste to “cheese in a can” and is pretty
delicious. I've also tried their pudding, which is amazing, and their sour cream, which was not amazing..

Most vegans
rave about Daiya, which I think is okay. It’s not amazing, and I find it
overwhelming to top a pizza with it. You're going to see it in the "fake
dairy" section. It's just "meh," not amazing.

And fake rice
milk cheese, tastes like rice, not cheese. A lot of fake cheese substitutes
also have whey or casein, so watch out for that.

Chocolate
A lot of chocolate is already vegan. Yay! Except, I noticed in lower-quality chocolate (hershey, M&M's, ghirardelli) there is milk-fat used. Dark chocolate is almost always vegan
but, as you may have guessed, milk chocolate is not. Theo chocolate (not a
purely vegan company) is really good about writing “vegan suitable” on the back
of their bars that are vegan, but a lot of the time you can just read the label
to see if there are milk products used. Some things are made on equipment that
also processes milk-products. It’s
obviously up to you, how picky you want to be with what you ingest, but in cases like this, it should state it on the product, near the ingredient list.